⚡ win-sync

Backup and restore your entire Windows development environment in one command — never lose your setup again.

📖 Introduction

Switching Windows machines means reinstalling everything from memory — and forgetting half of it. win-sync scans your machine for everything you have installed, flags the apps that can't be restored automatically, and saves it all to a JSON snapshot you can restore with a single command.

✨ Features

• 🚀 Instant full scan — detects Winget packages, NPM global packages, PIP packages, and registry-installed apps in seconds.
• 🎨 Beautiful interactive tables — color-coded terminal tables with live spinners and a clean, modern UI (courtesy of chalk, ora, and cli-table3).
• ⚠️ Smart manual-app detection — apps installed outside Winget are flagged as "Manual" so you know exactly what you'll need to re-download by hand.
• 📦 JSON & Markdown export — save a machine-readable backup for 1-click restores, or a human-readable document for sharing and documentation.
• 🔄 One-command restore — reinstall everything automatically via winget import, npm i -g, and pip install.
• 🎯 Works with what you already have — NPM, PIP, Winget, and PowerShell are all standard on a modern Windows dev box.

📦 Installation

Install globally via npm:

npm install -g win-sync

Or run from source during development:

git clone https://github.com/barigalasunil/win-sync.git
cd win-sync
npm install
npm link

After that, the win-sync command is available anywhere on your machine.

🚀 Usage & Commands

Backup

Just run win-sync — the scan starts automatically (this is the same as win-sync backup):

win-sync
# or
win-sync backup

This detects:

• Winget packages (Windows Package Manager)
• NPM global packages
• PIP packages (Python)
• Manual apps — installed outside Winget (found via Windows Registry)

When the scan finishes, choose what to do with your setup:

| Option | Action | |--------|--------| | (B) Backup (JSON) | Save everything, including manual apps, to win-sync-setup.json | | (M) Save as Markdown only | Generate a human-readable win-sync-setup.md | | (A) Save as Both (JSON + Markdown) | Write both files | | (S) Save Auto-Restorable Only | JSON backup without manual apps | | (D) Discard and exit | Save nothing |

Note: Apps not available in Winget are listed under manual_apps and must be downloaded manually after restore.

How the backup files look

win-sync-setup.json captures everything needed for a full restore:

{
  "winget": ["Microsoft.VisualStudioCode", "Git.Git"],
  "npm": ["typescript", "eslint"],
  "pip": [{ "name": "requests", "version": "2.31.0" }],
  "manual_apps": [
    { "name": "SomeApp", "version": "1.0.0", "publisher": "SomePublisher" }
  ],
  "exportedAt": "2026-09-23T10:30:00.000Z"
}

The Markdown export (win-sync-setup.md) is a polished, human-readable snapshot with a summary table and per-category sections for Winget, NPM, PIP, and manual apps — perfect for committing to your repo or sharing in docs.

Restore

Installs all packages from the backup JSON:

win-sync restore

• Winget packages are reinstalled in bulk via winget import
• NPM and PIP packages are installed individually with a progress bar
• Manual apps are listed again so you remember to download them

🖥️ Output Example

Here's what running win-sync looks like:

 _    _           _   _____ _ _
| |  | |         | | /  ___(_) |
| |  | | ___  ___| | \ `--. _| |_
| |/\| |/ _ \/ __| |  `--. \ | __|
\  /\  /  __/\__ \_| /\__/ / | |_
 \/  \/ \___||___(_) \____/|_|\__|

Windows Development Environment Backup & Restore

✔ Scanning Winget packages...
✔ Scanning NPM global packages...
✔ Scanning PIP packages...
✔ Checking for manual apps...

Scan complete — here's what was found:

┌──────────────────┬───────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ Category         │ Count │ Status                       │
├──────────────────┼───────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ Winget Apps      │ 48    │ ✅ Ready to backup           │
│ NPM Globals      │ 15    │ ✅ Ready to backup           │
│ PIP Packages     │ 71    │ ✅ Ready to backup           │
│ Manual Apps      │ 4     │ ⚠️ Needs re-download         │
└──────────────────┴───────┴──────────────────────────────┘

Manual apps — must be downloaded after restore:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│ App                                     │ Version    │ Publisher                  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
│ Some Proprietary Tool                    │ 2.3.1      │ SomeCompany                │
│ Another GUI App                          │ 1.0.0      │ AnotherPublisher           │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────┴────────────────────────────┘

? What would you like to do with this setup?
  (B) Backup (JSON)
  (M) Save as Markdown only
  (A) Save as Both (JSON + Markdown)
  (S) Save Auto-Restorable Only (exclude manual apps)
  (D) Discard and exit

During win-sync restore, a real-time progress bar tracks each package as it's installed:

installing ████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░ 58% | 170/292 | [email protected]

📁 Project Structure

win-sync/
├── index.js                  # CLI entry point & command registration
├── package.json              # dependencies, metadata & bin config
├── src/
│   ├── backup.js             # backup scan + B/M/A/S/D save flow
│   ├── banner.js             # ASCII art banner + terminal maximize
│   ├── markdown-generator.js # human-readable .md export builder
│   ├── restore.js            # restore flow (winget/npm/pip + progress)
│   ├── ui.js                 # tables, spinners & interactive prompts
│   └── utils.js              # shared command runner helpers
└── test/
    ├── backup.test.js
    ├── banner.test.js
    ├── markdown-generator.test.js
    └── ui.test.js

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are all welcome! Here's how to get started:

1. Fork the repo and create your feature branch:

   git checkout -b feat/amazing-feature

2. Make your changes, keeping code style consistent (CommonJS, existing utilities/patterns).

3. Add tests for your changes and make sure the suite passes:

   npm test

4. Commit with a clear message, push to your fork, and open a Pull Request.

Please make sure your PR is focused, well-documented, and passes all existing tests.

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Made for Windows developers who hate reinstalling everything twice. ⚡